Shocking assault to their systems

I am not kidding when I tell you that we have had a hell of an ice storm since last nite and it is not over yet. In all the years I have had horses, I have never seen icicles hang off of so many of them like this.
This is what the babies' first ice storm is doing to them---look at that poor butt! That is not snow just lying on her, that is iced on and is hanging on for dear life.

This is baby Shiloh's back--she is completely covered in ice pellets.
She does not look very amused--look at all the ice chunks in her mane
She is still cute though.
This is the only smart one of the broodmares--Melody--she was at least standing in the barn to get out of the sleet. Evidently she had not been there all day, as she too had icicles hanging off of her.
Nita seems to have the most ice on her, but it is no wonder with all that area of her back hanging so low. There is plenty of room to catch ice on there!
This is Nita too--she has ice balls hanging from her tail and a chunk of tail hair was stuck to her butt.
Squeak appears to be pretty smart--she had a lot less ice on her. She has her own pen and turnout since she is blind, but there are some days when I swear she is faking it. In this pic, she is trying to get into the bucket of feed even though she was the only one that had already eaten. After this, while I was trying to take other pics, she went around the corner, and stuck her head under the fence and into a feed bucket that Lucky and Ammo were sharing--she took a few bites, and then she stole the bucket right under the fence. That would not be so odd for any other horse, but for one who supposedly cannot see the broad side of a barn, it is kind of interesting. She is also the most pleasant easy-going enjoyable horse I have ever known, so for her to pull a stunt like that cracked me up. Hell, I even let her keep it!

Xanadu was caked in ice. She was also not very amused by this whole deal. Not at all. She has 6 weeks until she is due to foal, as does Mel, Cash and someone else I cannot currently think of. Surprise crappy weather like this is why we do not breed for early babies--you never can tell what is going to happen--and can you imagine how miserable it would be to accidentally foal in this mess?

Miss Foxy is due in April I think. She needs to put on a little weight, I think, but she is doing okay for one who always struggles with her weight when in foal. She has the singularly most annoying habit I think--when she thinks she should be fed, she runs her teeth along something metal--like the corral panel that separates her pasture from Squeak's pen. I swear it makes my hair stand on end--she goes back and forth back and forth scraping her teeth on the metal. Creeps me right out. It is a good alarm though to tip me off to when she has not been fed her dinner, as I thought she had--she will not let me forget something like that.



This pic of Hotrod cracks me up--she is as pissed as I am about the weather.

If this keeps up, it will be a work at home day tomorrow-- I got stuck in my own driveway coming home tonight, and that is before the other 3-6 inches of snow arrive.

Mamas gone wild

I am sure the mamas were the happiest to get out today--it was fun to see them tear it up with the babies following them. Too bad it only lasted a short while--but I plan to chuck them back out in the morning before work so they can enjoy what is supposed to be a precipitation free day.


Notice how Xan chose the one small strip that is nasty to have her antics. Typical Xan

Like mother like daughter

It is becoming more obvious all the time how much Melody and Square Baby look alike. I am sure that Missy will tell me this has something to do with how Mel is bred, since her maternal and paternal grandsires are full brothers. She is the spitting image of Freckles Playboy I think, but it may just seem to be that way as I am forever getting photos of her standing ust like he did in his ads, with that same expression he had.

Square Baby is her oldest, at three years old. She is the last of my babies by High Brow Hickory that I still own, as the last two were colts that were snapped up pretty quickly. Sq Baby is called that because she was a perfect square when she was born--as tall as she was long, and almost as wide. It just sorta stuck.

I think they look an awful lot alike, and they sure do act alike.

Big night in the barn, etc

Since I felt like I have done nothing this week, last nite shaped up to be pretty big--of course it did, I wanted to watch TV!

Marvin was here to do more feet--he trimmed Diablo, Hotrod, Squeak, Cash, Melody, Square Baby and Sly, and worked on Nita's feet. She now has thrush to go along with her abcess, which I kind of suspected, but had not seen in so long, I needed another pair of eyes to confirm it for me. That I knew where the thrush medicine was (unopened as I have never ever needed it), is a miracle in itself. That healing is now underway, thank goodness for that.

We also weaned CC and Squiggy. They do not care. Diablo and Fuzzy got their PKI shots and moved to the back pasture, as did everyone but Rock, and Square Baby who is going to stay up here try to eat herself into a growth spurt like everyone else is doing. I am planning the moving around of horses to different pastures--this sounds easy but is not so much. The first priority is having horses on the same feed program pastured together---so those on the regular 3 pounds of Strategy a day go in one pasture. Weanlings and yearlings are on much more feed than that so they need their own field. I have never pastured babies with yearlings before, so that will be interesting. Ideally they would go in the middle pasture, since it is bigger than the front one, but I do not want them on a fence line with their mothers---just in case. That forces there to be a lot of kids in the front pasture together which is not very big--but then again, neither are they. I might put Foxy with them, as she is getting bossy to Gramps and Lucky and taking their senior feed. No that wont work, as Vixen is in there. Crap. Surely by the time the weather changes, I can swap again and put them in the middle pasture with way more space.

I also have the few older mares that need some feed to consider--I think I will put them with the twos and other 3-pound eaters, and hope they do not get too bossy.

Meanwhile, easy keepers and fatties are in the back pasture on the miracle hay not eating Strategy at all right now. They just do not need it. After last nite, there are more of them back there than there ever have been this year, so that hay will go faster than the others, but we can work that pretty easily.

The goal this weekend is to confirm the perimeter of the hay field, and put really hard keepers out there---I am going to try Gramps, and Lucky--maybe Foxy can go there as well. Playmate too. It is probably 12-14 acres but I have to be very careful not to overgraze since it is the hayfield...so they will only stay a couple of weeks and be back to their regular places

This is a lot of thinking!

It is funny to see Marvin work with Mel and Square Baby--he says they are kind of dumb, which is good in that he can convince them of anything way more quickly than he can the others, who are too smart to take his word for anything right off the bat. Diablo got a much needed come to Jesus--she acted like such a cow. It is probably uncomfortable to hold her legs up with that huge belly, but that is no excuse to misbehave. She needs an exercise program. I measured her last nite and she is 14 hands and 1081 pounds! Can you imagine? That is one hefty sister! I left my camera hanging in the barn last nite so I wont have pics of all that until tonight.

The only one that weighs more than her is Hotrod at 1097...and she has probably three inches on her. I did not measure her height. I do love my measuring stick, but I see Barry rolling his eyes everytime he sees it coming. We measured Fuzzy too and she is right at 14 hands as well, and 860, I think. That seems kind of light and she does not look light at all, so I dont know if that is accurate.

I think we did Mel too but I dont remember that one. She looks so much like her grandsire Freckles Playboy it is creepy---she stands just like I remember his ads looking. Maybe she looks so much like him as her dam was by Freckles Hustler as well, so there is a lot of similar genetic material in there.

The BIL Jeff is probably coming down for the weekend. We are going to go tailgating at SIU in the morning for my 10 year law school reunion. I cannot believe that it has been so long.

The other BIL Edward has his birthday this week. Then he and Mandy got a big blow about the adoption of Gabi---they hit a speed bump and were sent back to the starting line again. It is appalling what that system does to people trying to do a good thing.

I just ordered two more semis of hay to be delivered next week. Surely I am close to having all we need. I screwed around and got beat out of the cutting I wanted, but this stuff tests out real close to that---lets cross our fingers it does. The girls look as good as they EVER have on this hay right now, and I get a little giggly every time I look at them. I feel really good about it.

I had lunch today with the State's Attorney who is retiring and his number one man who is running for the position. Also with them was Bob, who is a story unto himself. Suffice it to say we laughed until we hurt with some funny stories, and I learned that no one has any idea what the hell went on at Madison's house with the arson. Great.

Have I rambled enough about absolutely nothing?